Psycho Festival
Psycho Festival is an ongoing series of festivals run by Psycho Entertainment, active since 2013. Initially, the festival was held in California as a one-day event before evolving into a three-day event in Santa Ana in 2015. From 2016 to 2018 the festival has been moved to Las Vegas, Nevada at the Hard Rock Hotel & Cafe, named Psycho Las Vegas, rechristening their event as a "Rock and Roll Bacchanal". As of 2020 Psycho Las Vegas is hosted at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino. What was originally a one-day event in California has turned into one of the premier festivals in the United States spanning four days with a wide variety of bands, done in a similar vein to many popular heavy festivals. 2013: Psycho De Mayo The first edition of Psycho Festival, billed as "Psycho De Mayo", was held on May 5, 2013 at four different venues in Santa Ana, California.Facebook FacebookFacebook 2014: Psycho De Mayo The second edition of Psycho Festival was held on May 11, 2014 in Orange County, California. Like the previous year it was billed as "Psycho De Mayo" but this time in a single venue (The Observatory) spread out over two stages. There was also notably a warm-up show at the Constellation Room in Orange County on May 10 featuring A Place To Bury Strangers, Cold Showers and Electric Flower Group.Facebook 2015: The Road To Psycho Tour The Road To Psycho was a tour set up by Thief Presents and Psycho Entertainment as a "build-up" to Psycho California with most of the dates happening in California. The three bands chosen (With special guests at select dates) were Electric Citizen, Stoned Jesus and headliner Elder.FacebookAccessed 13 July 2016 Dates and Additional Bands * May 7, 2015 - Harvard & Stone - Los Angeles, California * May 8, 2015 - Milk Bar - San Fransisco, California * May 9, 2015 - Sweet Springs Saloon - San Luis Obispo, California * May 10, 2015 - Brick By Brick - San Diego, California (With Dead Meadow) * May 12, 2015 - The Slidebar - Fullerton, California * May 13, 2015 - The Marine Room - Laguna Beach, California * May 14, 2015 - Pappy & Harriet's - Pioneertown, California (With True Widow and Earth) 2015: Psycho California Psycho California was a festival curated from May 15 to May 17 at The Observatory in Santa Ana, California. Cult of Luna (The intended Friday Headliner) and Stoned Jesus were intended to play this festival but were forced to cancel due to visa issues. Author & Punisher also played all three days providing interludes to the main stage sets. Vinyl DJ sets were provided by Bob Lugowe and Sean Pelletier. A pop-up art gallery was provided by David V. D'andrea. Visuals provided by Josh Graham. May 15 May 16 May 17 2016: Psycho Road Show Psycho Road Show is a touring festival curated by the same people behind Psycho Festival. The lineups and details were announced on July 5, 2016 with the touring bands being Highlands, Tales of Murder and Dust (On their first US tour), The Cosmic Dead and lastly Acid Witch as the headliner.Facebook Accessed 13 July 2016 Dates & Bands * August 18, 2016 - Reggie's - Chicago, Illinois * August 19, 2016 - Globe Hall - Denver, Colorado * August 20, 2016 - Barracuda Austin - Austin, Texas (With Mammatus, Wo Fat, Mala Suerte and Duel * August 23, 2016 - Elbo Room - San Fransisco, California * August 24, 2016 - The Echo - Los Angeles, California (With A Storm of Light) * August 25, 2016 - Vinyl Las Vegas - Las Vegas, Nevada (With Black Mountain and White Hills; No Tales of Murder and Dust or The Cosmic Dead) 2016: Psycho Las Vegas While there is no official announcement for a second edition of Psycho California (Until the 2017 edition announced in July 2016), the same team behind the festival have announced Psycho Las Vegas. Psycho Las Vegas will take place from August 26 - 28 at The Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. The initial lineup was revealed on January 20, 2016. The full lineup is set to be revealed on February 14, 2016 and the headliners will be revealed on March 15, 2016.The Obelisk Later the announcements were delayed with the full lineup announcements and headliner announcements moved to February 28 and March 28, respectively.Eventbrite On March 28, Drive Like Jehu was announced as the Friday headliner and Electric Wizard were announced as the Saturday headliner. Alice Cooper was announced as the final headliner for April 3. August 25 August 26 August 27 August 28 2017: Brick By Brick Performances Throughout the summer it would be announced a small string of exclusive shows booked by Thief Presents at Brick By Brick in San Diego preceding and after the festival. *16 August 2017 - Yob, SubrosaFacebook *22 August 2017 - Warning, ConanFacebook 2017: Psycho Las Vegas In January 2017 initial bands for the 2017 edition of Psycho Las Vegas were announced and 1 March 2017 the full lineup barring two headliners (Brian Jonestown Massacre and Mastodon) was announced, with the first announced headliner at the time being King Diamond.Metal InjectionAccessed 1 June 2017 Crystal Fairy would drop off due to scheduling conflicts between members and Buzzov*en would drop off due to conflicts with the festival promoters. August 17 August 17 is the pre-show party for Psycho Las Vegas, with the majority of the show being held at the poolside stage and two bands performing at the Vinyl stage to close out the evening. The pre-show sold out well in advance, by a couple months before the actual festival itself. The lineup and set times were announced on 13 July 2017.Facebook August 18 Friday 18 August is set to be the first official day of the festival with The Brian Jonestown Massacre as the evening's headliner. The full schedule for this day was announced on 21 July 2017.Facebook August 19 19 August is the second evening of the festival with King Diamond as the headliner of the evening.Facebook August 20 20 August 2017 is the third and final day of the festival barring the pre-fest, with Mastodon set as the headliner of the evening. Also of note Swans is performing the longest set of the festival at two hours, Manilla Road performing a worldwide exclusive performance doing Crystal Logic in it's entirety and Warning performing Watching From a Distance in it's entirety. 2018: Brick By Brick Performances On 5 February 2018, Psycho Entertainment announced a special pre-show at Brick by Brick in San Diego preceding this year's Psycho Las Vegas. Performing on 21 August 2018 would be Black Mare, Cloak, Spirit Adrift and Church of Misery. Besides this performance and their confirmed appearance at Psycho Las Vegas they would be the only USA performances for Church of Misery in 2018.Psycho Las Vegas FacebookAccessed 5 February 2018 Another Brick By Brick Performance would be announced for 20 August 2018, featuring Dvne, Elder and Red Fang.Facebook 2018: Psycho Las Vegas It would be announced that Psycho Las Vegas would be returning on 17 - 19 August 2018 at the Hard Rock Hotel and Cafe in Las Vegas. On 14 December 2017 a teaser lineup of seven bands was announced along with tickets going on sale the next day and announcements of 70+ bands and a "grand headliner".LoudwireAccessed 14 December 2017 On 3 August 2018, Dopethrone would cancel their appearance at Psycho Las Vegas along with their entire North American tour due to unresolved VISA issues.Dopethrone Facebook On 8 August 2018, Venom Inc. was forced to cancel their appearance due to a combination of health-related and visa issues.Blabbermouth Witchcraft were intended to play on 17 August as the headliner but ended up canceling on the day of due to VISA issues. Andrew Dice Clay would be the replacement. Notably the Hard Rock Hotel and Cafe had been announced to have been bought out by another company, forcing the festival to move in the next year, leaving their own official statement of "Evolve or Dissolve". August 16 (Pre-Show Party) The pre=show party on 16 August 2018 was held at the Paradise Pool, with Wolves in the Throne Room as the headliner for that event. * Wolves in the Throne Room * Elder * Yaitm * Fireball Ministry * Dengue Fever * Toke August 17 August 18 August 19 2019: Psycho SmokeOut On 12 October 2018, Thief Presents announced the first annual Psycho SmokeOut. Set to be a "one-day supershow" on 20 April 2019 in Los Angeles, it is in collaboration with RidingEasy Records. A teaser lineup and early bird tickets are set to be announced on 22 October.Psycho Las Vegas Instagram On 23 October a lineup of eighteen bands would be announced along with the location of Catch One in Los Angeles. Through the later months several more bands would be added including Yob as a headliner. 2019: Psycho Las Vegas Sometime after the 2018 edition of Psycho Las Vegas it would be announced that the Hard Rock Hotel and Cafe had been bought out and set for new ownership by 2019, forcing Psycho Entertainment to find a new venue with a statement of "evolve or dissolve". On 14 November 2018 it would be announced that the 2019 edition of Psycho Las Vegas would be held at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino from 16 - 18 August 2019.The Obelisk On 29 November 2018 a teaser lineup would be announced, featuring Uncle Acid and the deadbeats, High on Fire, Yob, Kadavar, Glassjaw, Perturbator and Oranssi Pazuzu. On 14 March 2019 Psycho Entertainment would release a poster for the festival unveiling 44 acts of a proposed 60, with headliners to be announced.The Obelisk In April the full lineup would be revealed with the headliners being Opeth, Megadeth and Electric Wizard. However with Dave Mustaine announcing his throat cancer diagnosis Megadeth would be forced to cancel all of their touring commitments for 2019, including Psycho. On 29 June a new headliner would be announced in The Original Misfits.Psycho Las Vegas Facebook DJ Painkiller and DJ Ethan McCarthy are commissioned to handle DJ duties through the entire weekend. Rotting Christ and Oranssi Pazuzu were both initially announced but ultimately dropped off close to the festival weekend, both of which due to VISA complications. Thursday 15 August Friday 16 August Saturday 17 August Sunday 18 August 2020: Psycho Smokeout The second edition of Psycho Smokeout, billed as Psycho Smokeout 2.0, is set for 18 April 2020 at Catch One Riff Compound in Los Angeles, California. A lineup announcement of nineteen bands with one headliner to be announced would happen in September.The Obelisk 2020: Psycho Las Vegas The 2020 edition of Psycho Las Vegas would be announced in the fall of 2019 and set for 14 - 16 August 2020 at The Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino, with the first seven bands announced on 8 November.Psycho Las Vegas Instagram Further band announcements would take place on 13 DecemberPsycho Las Vegas Instagram and 19 December,Psycho Las Vegas Instagram culminating in the full lineup announced on 30 January. The headliners for the 2020 edition would include Mercyful Fate (USA Exclusive), Emperor (USA Exclusive) and Danzig (Performing Danzig II: Lucifuge in it's entirety.). Notable other performers include Ulver (USA exclusive), At The Gates (Celebrating the 25th anniversary of Slaughter of The Soul), Poison The Well (Celebrating the 20th anniversary of The Opposite of December) and Down (Celebrating the 20th anniversary of NOLA) among a widely diverse lineup.The Obelisk External Links *Official Webpage *Psycho Smokeout on Instagram *Thief Presents on Facebook *Thief Presents on Instagram References Category:Event Category:Festival Category:Santa Ana Category:California Category:Las Vegas Category:Nevada